London, England (CNN) -- For even the most environmentally conscious of players, playing golf and remaining green is a difficult balance to achieve, especially if your aim lands you in water hazards more than on the fairway.

Research teams at the Danish Golf Union discovered it takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally, a startling fact when it is estimated 300 million balls are lost or discarded each year in the United States alone.

Once the misplaced shot settles in the sediment, whether the body of water that consumes your ball is a pond, river or lake; the disintegrating ball will then slowly release a high quantity of the heavy metal zinc as it disintegrates.

But it seems there maybe a solution to help offending players keep out of hot water, thanks to a Spanish golf ball manufacturer that has invented a ball which not only dissolves upon contact with water, but is made of fish food.